Well, I had mentioned some things in my last jeep post about ditching my d60 front in favor of a dana 44...yeah, I have since changed my mind again and feel it will be better to stick with the Dana 60.
It will be stronger, and I will probably actually have less money in it in the long run.
So, over last weekend I went ahead and took the hubs back apart and removed the shafts so that I could send these things off to be regeared--the 14 bolt was at 4.10 and the D60 at 3.54...unacceptable!
Regearing is pretty pricey, as it is very time consuming to get the tooth contact pattern set up right. It also usually requires some pretty specific tools. I don't have a lot of time or a dust-free environment to do this, not even to mention the proper tools and know-how--I opt to let someone else do this.
On Tuesday the 26th, my buddy Mark was taking his JK Rubicon to have some new wheels and tires put on as well as a regear, so I asked him if he would pull a trailer with my axles on it to the place: East Coast Gear Supply.
I had my front Dana 60 geared to 5.38, and the rear GM 14 bolt geared to 5.38 with Yukon Grizzly locker installed as well.
The Yukon Grizzly is pretty cool as it is very similar to a Detroit locker, and is also usually a full case locker which replaces the carrier. In the GM 14 bolt, however, the carrier is "so big and strong" that both the Detroit and Grizzly are basically just a giant lunchbox locker which replaces the spider gears.
Now that my axles are geared, which was one of the two most expensive steps in this whole process to recovery, I can just clean them up and get my spring perches welded on. Then just some paint and should not be very long before I can get this thing off of the jack stands, at least!
I am still trying to decide if I want to stretch my rear or not, and although the advice in that link points the other way I am leaning towards not stretching my wheelbase at this point in time. We'll see, though.
Hopefully I will get a little bit done this weekend so I can take some mock-up pictures to help see about where I am with this.
Here is what I have so far:
Check out these giant drums and existing DRW/C&C hubs!
My buddy Zach took my SRW hubs and sandblasted them with glass bead at his school's shop:
Terrible picture, but Z also blasted my Dana 60 spindles and I primered everything up:
Tags: #jeep #d60 #1tons #14b
